Introverts: which ones have you enjoyed the most?
- Lockpicking
- Rubiks Cubes
- Raspberry Pi stuff.
- Narrative driven Video games, obviously
- Cooking
Are you me?
I enjoy miniature painting, as it will let you engage as much (or little) with the various communities as you wish. Order paint online, and paint in the troll cave by yourself? Certainly! Make some small talk with the clerk and patrons at your local hobby shop, now that you share a common interest and have something to talk about? Absolutely!
Get obsessed with 40K lore, wonder where all your money and free time went, realize you have enough miniatures to paint for several decades, and yet you still can’t stop buying them and oh god those paints would go amazing with that color scheme you pictured so maybe just one more purchase —-
Exactly the answer I had in mind. It’s something you can do on your own time and in your own space, but it also creates opportunities to interact with other hobbyists.
Something I hate as an introvert - and notice in many other introverts - is the pain of making idle small talk. Having a common interest as a reason to talk to other people feels much more natural to me and is great as an entry point for introverts wanting to get to know other people without it feeling forced.
You can do it for wargaming like 40K, but also for TTRPGs like DnD. Sometimes I just paint models for the hell of it that I never intend to use in any game. You can also branch out from making models to building terrain and scenery - there’s loads of great tutorials on YouTube.
I tried miniature painting for the first time a few years ago. But I did the plastic miniatures that came with board games I liked. I saw a youtube video explaining how to play the game and he painted his. So I thought they looked great painted and so I painted 2 board games miniatures.
Gloomhaven Miniatures: The Cragheart Tinkerer With green Pack for his gadgets
Castle Ravenloft Players and Monsters
I’m not great at it and I don’t think I have the patients for it. But I’m happy I tried and I like the way they look now.
Kudos to thoes that have the steady hand and eyesight to get this done well.
Came here to say this. I almost never play Warhammer, but I absolutely love making and painting the minis and putting together little dioramas to photograph or film. Since getting a 3d printer its been even more fun, as you can make your own villages and set up fun scenes!
Cycling. Nobody to bother you and you can just keep going for hours. Even if you ride with other people, they’re won’t be much chatter during the ride. Going for a drink afterwards is optional. And even if you go you can just talk about gear ratios and spring rates.
Yes! I just got back into cycling last month after not touching a bike for 10 years, did my first 40k yesterday. It’s just you and your bike for a few hours, I couldn’t be happier while riding
I got into leatherworking during the pandemic and it’s been really rewarding. The actual act of cutting and sewing the leather is very zen to me, and in the end you have something new that you can use or give as a gift!
Getting started is fairly cheap (some punches, needles, thread, a sharp knife, and leather is all you really need to get started). I order everything online so no need to interact with people.
Lots of good tutorials online to learn (Carter leather, weaver, are both good YT channels)
I’d anyone is interested in trying it I’d be happy to help get you started 😊
I found about leatherworking some weeks ago and I’d like to get started during the summer :)
This never would have occurred to me, but it looks interesting. Thanks for the suggestion!
Do the Blender donut tutorial and learn 3D modeling. It’s free. It’s a great time sink. Amazing online community. Personally, I find it very rewarding. I learned during lockdown and it’s one of my favorite accomplishments and I still have so much to learn.
What’s the doughnut tutorial? Been thinking of getting into blender for checks watch years at this point.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjEaoINr3zgFX8ZsChQVQsuDSjEqdWMAD
I believe this is the latest version but it might already be outdated. Blender changes stuff around often so these get outdated pretty quickly. I did the version before that (came out 3 years ago).
edit: if stuff isn’t there or not working like it’s shown you can search “how to do [x] in [current Blender version]”
Definitely +1 on 3D modeling. It’s very cool to just be able to come up with a thing and then just create it :)
Gardening is a great introvert hobby. It gets me outside in the sun and sometimes I run into neighbors, so I can keep up with the people around me without having to commit to any big social event. I have a flower garden in the front, so not only is it a hobby, but it also makes my house look nice. Then in the back I grow vegetable and herbs, so we get lots of delicious veggies out of it too.
I also love checking out books from my library app and spending an afternoon reading with a cup of tea. It’s also free!
This is great since there’s a lot of online gardening groups and resources. A few in person but it’s mostly at your house and you can do it for years with a large amount of planning and you can go deep into different topics.
Metal detecting, provided it’s legal where you live.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectorists is a really wholesome show about this
I am ignorant about this, but have had thoughts about taking it up. Why would it be illegal?
Some countries with a wealth of antiquities (like Turkey) have tried to stop looting by banning metal detectors. It doesn’t work. Lots of ancient coins are being taken out of Turkey, despite the illegality.
In contrast, England allows detecting, but has strict laws on reporting if you find significant treasure. Their laws on the sale and ownership of the found treasure are also quite fair and reasonable.
<edit: a word>
Running.
Extroverts hates this one trick: just run away from them
Video games, crafts, reading, gardening
Things I enjoy despite the fact that I’m an introvert: racing, building racecars (it’s a whole ass thing with a bunch of people on our race team)
I had a lot of fun building my 4wd rc car
Creative writing – also it costs almost nothing. Fiction, poems, whatever you want.
Painting, drawing and art – not terribly expensive to get started, especially colored pencil and water color
Solo outdoor activities like hiking, cycling (road or mountain), frisbee golf, cross country skiing, kayaking, canoeing, beachcombing
Photography – you can just use your phone or buy a fancy camera. Make prints, hang them around your house.
Playing musical instruments – pick your favorite, there are instructions on YouTube for everything:
- free (singing, whistling, spoons)
- cheap (harmonica, thumb piano, plastic flute, hand drums)
- medium (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, many strings and wind instruments, electronic music)
- more expensive (analog and modular synths, piano, the larger string and wind instruments)
I put on headphones (ANC transparency mode enabled) and jam out while bicycling for an hour daily. I put over 3,000 miles on my Trek Verve2 annually
Photography. I took this up as a hobby after having kids and no longer had time for woodworking. It is portable and doesn’t require expensive equipment, although if you get into it you can certainly spend as much as you like on lenses.
I can bring the camera with me on vacation in a city and take fun pictures of buildings, or get lost in the woods for a few hours observing and photographing nature.
My photos are just for me, but there are often small local photo clubs where you can share, learn and even exhibit in coffee shops and libraries if you want.
Add film and you’re down the rabbit hole forever.
Programming. I honestly love writing code. I’ve built quite a few useful tools for myself, I’ve toyed around with making games, I regularly play around with new languages and libraries to see how they work, and I’ve also written a bunch of pointless code that has no practical purpose but was fun or enjoyable to create. All of which cost me no money and required very little interaction with other people.
This is going to sound a little strange, but playing music on stage works for me. At least in moderation, and provided you aren’t the lead singer/MC who has to interact with people. You just wanna be some guy in the corner jamming on whatever you jam on.
You kind of get the best parts of being in a social situation in terms of seeing new places, having interesting experiences you can ponder for days to come, and occasionally getting free food and/or a green room where you can veg out in isolation and no one expects anything of you. But you can avoid the negatives: having to make small talk, looking awkward with nothing to do and no role to play, being labelled antisocial, getting roped into some horrible activity you did not sign on for, etc.
And it turns out there are a lot of introverted musicians. You only really need one extravert in a band.
